Sara Sealtiel was a daughter of Benjamin Sealtiel and his first wife Rachel Dreese, who passed away in 1892. Sara was born in Amsterdam on 9 December 1879 and she was the 2nd child from the 1st marriage of her father. She married on 27 November 1901 Elkan van Straten, who was born in Bolsward on 25 March 1876 as son of Levie van Straten and Roosje de Leeuw. The couple had three children, Levie, Benjamin and Rozette.
Rozette was the only one from the Sealtiel family who survived the Holocaust. She married 11 July 1935 the diamond polisher Isaac Rubens and 30 December 1941 their son Joop Gerard was born. Her husband and son survived the war too.
Both Sara and Elkan van Straten’s sons, Levie and Benjamin married respectively in 1931 and in 1929; they had families and have been killed all during the Shoah.
Elkan van Straten was a diamond polisher by profession and he had five brothers and two sisters. Rozette worked in a fabric store and she was also a rose cutter in the diamond industry. She had one brother and one sister. After their wedding, Elkan and Sara lived in Hilversum for some time but on 31 October 1908 they were registered in Amsterdam, where they lived at several addresses and where their children were born. In 1914, they lived at Vrolikstraat 156 1st floor and per 10 April 1935, they moved into a house at Herzogstraat 5 parterre, which also turned out to be their last known address in Amsterdam.
In November 1942, Elkan and Sara were called (call number 14009), to which they responded. On 26 November they were registered in Westerbork and deported to Auschwitz on 4 December. On arrival there on 7 December 1942, they were both immediately killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Sources include the City Archive of Amsterdam, the archive of the Municipal Social Service – dossier 26267, archive cards of Sara Sealtiel and Elkan van Straten; the file cabinet of the Jewish Council, registration cards of Elkan van Straten, Sara van Straten-Sealtiel, Levie van Straten, Benjamin van Straten, Isaac Rubens, Rozette Rubens-van Straten and Joop Gerard Rubens.